Please recommend me good books to read. I honestly need a lot of good books to read for school (Book Points), and because I want to start reading again, whenever I have time. So, please list books and tell me why they're good. Thanks.

Religion: THE FIRST COMING: How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity by Thomas Sheehan.
A scholarly look at the history of Christianity that will make you see this
religion in a different light.
Science: THE HOLOGRAPHIC UNIVERSE by Michael Talbot. Details the work of two well known scientists, Carl Pribram and David Bohm, who both came to the same conclusion while working separately, that the "reality" we experience is a holographic construct arising from a deeper level of reality to which we do not have access.
Biology: THE FEMALE BRAIN by Dr. Louann Brizendine. Follows the development and operation of the female brain from conception to menopause explaining how it works and why. Wonderful juxtaposition of male and female brain structure and operation, the two genders have very different brain structures and completely different ways of working.
Unusual Science: Any of the books by William R. Corliss in which he has collected information on anomalies by scouring scientific journals and other publications. All kinds of things that have been reported on but which do not fit into our current scientific paradigm. Fun and thoughful reading.
Philosophy: PEACE IS EVERY STEP by Thich Nhat Hanh. A blueprint for living your life consciously (mindfully). A treatise on living peacefully in a turbulent world.
More Philosophy: WHAT MAKES A MAN edited by Rebecca Walker. Twenty two writers from across the spectrum write about what it means to be a man in todays world. With society changing so rapidly it's difficult for many males to know what it really means to be a man.
Social Comment: IN THE ABSCENCE OF THE SACRED by Jerry Mander. In our high-tech society there is nothing that is sacred, everything is for sale, everything is just "stuff" to be used and abused for our own gratification, we don't revere anything anymore. Mander examines the ways in which our technology has let us down, how it has given us more power, but left us more impotent. This book questions the direction of our technological civilization is taking us.
Humor: THE DECLINE AND FALL OF PRACTICALLY EVERYBODY by Will Cuppy. An interesting and humorous look at history from the twisted perspective of Mr. Cuppy.
America: AMERICAN PICTURES by Jacob Holdt. A young Danish man comes to the US and hitchhikes 113,750 miles around the country in 6 years taking thousands of pictures and living in 434 different homes with ordinary people he met in his travels. He eventually published a book of pictures that he had taken during his travels that shows a side of America that we rarely see--the racism, the poverty, the gulf between the rich and poor, it's not a flattering picture but it is interesting.
Mental Landscape: THE ORIGINS OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE BREAKDOWN OF THE BICAMERAL MIND by Julian Jaynes. Jaynes examines the consciousness that we attribute to ourselves and take for granted. His research shows that consiousness isn't what we think it is and much of what we think we do consciously is actually done unconsciously. He looks at the origins of consiousness and how the concept that we think of as "religion" is probably hard wired into the human brain. Great book but scholarly and dense, though nutrient rich.
THE WAR PRAYER by Mark Twain. One of only two things Twain wrote but would not allow to be published until his death, a very short book now out of print and difficult to find, but worth it if you can.


This is a start, but if you would be willing to take one piece of advice from a woman old enough to be your grandmother I would tell you to read everything you can lay your hands on, every subject, and every perspective. Science and science fiction, religious propaganda, white supremicist literature, philosophy, how-to books, nutrition, history...everything, it will stand you in good stead as time goes by. It's always better to know than not to know.

a REALLY good book I read last semester was "A Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers.

Probably one of my favorite books I've read in a while.

Any other members on FC, please post here and contribute :).

I'll check into those books you two, thank you.

The Hobbit then The Lord of the Rings Trilogy...in that order.

Scifi:
Night's Dawn Trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction, Neutronium Alchemist, Naked God) by Peter F. Hamilton
Fits under the general space-opera canvas. Good character development, interesting background, good plot.

The Trigger Effect by Arthur Clarke
One of those sci-fis that can make you think about what such a thing would do. You'll probably remember this book for quite a long time.

Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson (plus The Martians afterward).
Very rich character development, plot, setting. It is everything scifi should be. Three large books, which is good. Never enough of a good thing, though.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
Just so you know how much of a **** writter she was. You'll be able to skim over a significant fraction of the book because of her masturbatory writing "style", and not miss a thing, while I'd presume you'd get points based on the size of the book ;)

Bioscience:
The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley
A great book on evolutionary phenomena. (now you'll be able to get the Resident Evil movie reference!)

~Mecha

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlen. This is one of greatest books i have ever read. its about a man raised on mars and how he's saved from government exploitation, assimilates into human society, and ultimately starts his own "religion". this book crosses from psycology, to humor, to philosopy, with a great story the whole way though.

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick. like weird stuff? like being confused? like seeing the seems of reality bust and twisting before your very eyes? this is for you! sci-fi about a point in the distant future (1990) when the ozone is so rotted you melt in the noon sun! the world is over populated and people are drafted to the mars colonies. our hero works for a company that makes doll house pieces. illicit as it may be, can-d is a hallucenagenic drug that allows the consumers to meld together and act out a paradise in these doll houses that they set up themsevles. this helps to deal with the bleak martian lifestyle, but when eldritch re-emerges from the far reaches of the galaxy, things get strange.

Some short stories by H.P. Lovecraft, weird horror in the vein of Edgar Allen Poe (sorta). explore mankind's primal fears and the horrific truths that will shatter you very sanity! Check out "the Call of Cthulhu" "Rats in the Walls" "Dagon" "Dreams in the Witch House" "Color Out of Space" "Winged Death"

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. If you're a comic book fan he's the guy who did the Sandman. this tale follows a big-hearted ex-con who becomes the hired man of none other than Odin, God of War, Wisdom, and Poetry. This is a story about faith, belief, myth, and worship. An excellent story. the Gods are real.

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. Its about the Spartans at Thermpylae. Really cool, with great battle descriptions and a heroic story.

The Stranger by Albert Camus... "The Stranger is not merely one of the most widely read novels of the 20th century, but one of the books likely to outlive it. Written in 1946, Camus's compelling and troubling tale of a disaffected, apparently amoral young man has earned a durable popularity (and remains a staple of U.S. high school literature courses) in part because it reveals so vividly the anxieties of its time. Alienation, the fear of anonymity, spiritual doubt--all could have been given a purely modern inflection in the hands of a lesser talent than Camus, who won the Nobel Prize in 1957 and was noted for his existentialist aesthetic. The remarkable trick of The Stranger, however, is that it's not mired in period philosophy." -Amazon.com

It also works for literally every single AP Lit essay question for the past 20 years, so it's worth reading if you want to take that test.

If Chins Could Kill by Bruce Campbell. His autobiography, sort of. Funny.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark. Sorcery in the Napoleonic Wars. A very very long read, but worth it.

George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. The best fantasy series in twenty years. I just wish he would write a little faster - sick of waiting two and three years between books.